


You’re Scared.

by TheFourDoctors



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Love Confessions, M/M, Short & Sweet, Spoilers, whooo boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 08:01:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20386366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFourDoctors/pseuds/TheFourDoctors
Summary: He was scared of feeling again. That much was true. But that brat, he was like an inferno of passion and determination, and he tore down those walls like they were nothing.(spoilers for season 3.)





	You’re Scared.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m back with a little one shot! This is nothing but a short character study with plot and feelings thrown in. Don’t worry, I’m working on another smutty one-shot for y’all sinners. I’ll try to get that one out soon. Been busy with school and life.

“No.” “Why not?” “Because it could never work. It would do more harm than good.”

...

“You’re scared.”

It was stated as fact. A true fact.

He was scared. He was scared of feeling again. He was scared of opening up. He was scared that he would be left vulnerable, that all the walls he had built up would crumble and that he’d ultimately shut down. That he’d be hurt.

Although, hurt is all he knew. Ever since he’d been a child, pain was constant. It followed him like his own shadow, a plague, an itch that could not be scratched, a loyal dog that would not back down.

It followed. A constant in his miserable life. He thought he’d been happy once, but that was many years ago. The pain started after his mother had been cruelly stolen away from him. She had been his rock for the first years of his life, and then she was gone. Like a flash of lighting. There one second, gone the next.

Though, he supposed that was another thing he and Eren had in common.

Both had been left motherless at a young age. Both missing their fathers. A life of pain. Responsibility that any other wouldn’t be able to shoulder. The sense of righteousness they felt was mutual, and both carried heavy burdens, one as humanity’s strongest, and the other as humanity’s hope.

After he’d joined the Scouts, the two he saw as family were taken away from him.

After Eren had joined his squad, his friends had been killed, brutally so by the Female Titan.

After the attack on Shinganshina, Erwin, the one he’d shared almost everything with, the one he’d once feelings for a long time ago, he was also taken away.

He was scared. Levi was scared. Over the past year, he’d caught feelings again. 

No matter how much he tried to tell himself that no, he was not feeling things for that brat, that no, he most certainly would not act on it, the emotions just would not leave. That time Annie had taken Eren, he’d felt fear and something he couldn’t place. That time he caught the news about Reiner and Bertoldt taking Eren and Ymir, he’d once again felt fear and that emotion again, but stronger.

And when he’d been kidnapped by Rod Reiss, Levi had been angry. And scared. And Confused. 

Confused, for that familiar emotion, the one he’d always tried to push down, had returned at full force. When he left Mikasa on that rooftop, he had every intention of getting them back, of getting Eren back.

And when they’d failed, it was crushing.

Truly, he was terrified of opening up again. He was like a whirlwind of fire. Anyone who came close would be burnt, and he didn’t want that happening again. Not to Eren. Not him.

“Im already burnt, Captain.”

The statement was resolute. He knew it to be true. Eren was the only person in this terrible world who understood what he was going through, the only person who understood what it was like, the only person he could possibly relate to.

It was ridiculous. He couldn’t admit it to himself. He couldn’t admit that he knew, deep down, that Eren was right. He was a damn coward for shying away from it. The kid was smart. He could see right through every defense he put up. Sometimes, Levi despised him for that. His emotionless demeanor was his safety, he couldn’t be hurt if he didn’t let anyone in.

Yet here came this brat, who tore down those walls and burst through to his very soul. He was passion, he was a raging fire of determination and selflessness, an inferno that sought nothing but to free humanity of the chains that held them. He was too caring, too naïve, and he extended that care to even someone as broken and cold as Levi.

Eren was warmth. A flame he could come too when his heart was too cold. A flame he could seek out to warm back up. An embrace he could seek, like a mother and her child.

It was undeniable. The inevitable truth. He felt something he hadn’t felt in years. 

Love.

And as he stood there, facing away from the object of his emotions, shaking softly and in near tears and /feeling/, he knew.

He was in love, and the feeling was mutual. He could admit that now.

He allowed Eren to come closer, to turn Levi to face him, even with his head bowed and eyes shadowed by raven hair. He allowed him to lift his chin up, too look softly into silvery blue eyes of emotion with the fiery passion that was his green ones. He allowed him to bend closer, to press his slightly chapped lips to his own soft ones.

It took him a second to remember how to breathe. For a moment, he was afraid that it would be too much. Afraid that this would break him, and that he’d push him away and run, that the emotions really were too much for him.

But, it was as if the goddesses were giving him a break. He did not run. He did not turn away and shut Eren out again. No, he stood his ground and finally returned the kiss, feeling the other sag slightly in relief.

The kiss eventually evolved to the point that the spark of flames had ignited to a blaze, and they fell into bed together, hands pulling at the offending pieces of fabric.

Come morning, they’d be out there, putting themselves at risk once more. But for tonight, they could be one. Nothing else mattered anymore. They’d make love until dawn, and they’d do so in the name of love.

For love was all they needed.


End file.
